10 things to know about Peppermint and Broadway's newest musical, 'Head Over Heels'

Nearly 20 years after getting her start as a "rope girl" at one of New York's hottest clubs, Delaware native and drag performer Peppermint has found a new Big Apple stage to perform on — and it's on Broadway.

Peppermint, who reached a national television audience as runner-up on "RuPaul's Drag Race" last year, is a star of "Head Over Heels," a new musical based on the music of '80s New Wave act The Go-Go's.

The show is backed by a pack of heavy hitters ranging from its A-List co-producer Gwyneth Paltrow to the show's Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer with a dazzling track record ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch," "Spring Awakening," "American Idiot").

Following an out-of-town run in San Francisco earlier this year and a month of previews on The Great White Way, the musical comedy has its official opening tonight with a soundtrack by the Belinda Carlisle-fronted all-female group.

And that's when the real work begins for Peppermint, who grew up in The Flats near Seventh and Woodlawn streets in Wilmington.

She is now locked in for eight shows a week with two shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays with only Mondays off.

"Head Over Heels" is an unpredictable tale about a royal family that must prevent an oracle's prophecy of doom. (Peppermint plays the oracle named Pythio.)

Here's what you need to know about both Delaware's newest Broadway performer and the show that just might turn her into a (bigger) star.

1. The Go-Go's surprised a "Head Over Heels" preview audience and performed a curtain call concert with the cast including hits “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “Head Over Heels," of course. Confetti fell, fans danced and the '80s came alive one more time.

2. Peppermint's appearance on stage opening night will be history-making moment. She will become the first openly transgender woman to originate a principal role on Broadway. She transitioned in New York after leaving Delaware and slowly came out to her family as a transgender woman over holiday visits back home. She counts her mother as one of her biggest supporters.

3. The Hudson Theatre is a proper place for Peppermint to make a little history given its own impressive history. It was the original home of "The Tonight Show" with Steve Allen and, later, Jack Paar. It was also The Savoy — New York "city's plushest and most expensive rock room," according to The New York Times' coverage of its 1981 opening. Everyone from Muddy Waters and Miles Davis to James Taylor and Echo & the Bunnymen played there.

4. The show's opening week was soured by a Wall Street Journal article on Monday entitled "Theater Patrons Not Going Gaga Over Go-Go’s Musical," pointing to weak preview ticket sales. The newspaper reported that the show grossed $1.3 million in previews — 36 percent of its potential take, according to figures supplied to them by the Broadway League, a trade group that tracks the industry.

5. If Peppermint had been chosen as the winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race" last year, she would have won $100,000. Instead, Sasha Velour took the crown. But Peppermint ended up with a new agent thanks to the attention-getting TV run and that agent heard about the "Head Over Heels" role. It was purposefully written as non-conforming, non-binary and after four auditions, she snagged the biggest role of her life.

6. When asked about why The Go-Go's ("We Got the Beat," "Our Lips Are Sealed,"  "Vacation") are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the all-female five-piece didn't seem heartbroken during a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview earlier this week. After 40 years on stage, Jane Wiedlin responded by saying, "You can't take away the fact that we were the very first successful all-female band who wrote all their own songs and played all their own instruments."

7. After getting her start at The Tunnel, a popular Peter Gatien-owned Chelsea nightclub that closed in 2001 after a 15-year run, Peppermint performed at a string of New York City hotspots, such as Therapy, Barracuda Bar, The Limelight and Lips before touring the world.

8. Peppermint actually got her nickname-turned-stage name while in a Delaware parking lot. She was in middle school hanging out with a boy she had a crush on at a local 7-Eleven when he noticed she loved to eat peppermints. "Of course, I went with it," she told The News Journal. "I would have done anything. So even then, my drag persona was starting."

9. Peppermint got her start at Delaware Children's Theater and OperaDelaware, getting rides from her mother, Joanna Moore Collins, a retired University of Delaware administrative academic adviser who still lives in Wilmington.  

10. How big is Peppermint these days? She has 105,000 followers on Twitter (@peppermint247). That's nearly as many as Philadelphia Phillies slugger Rhys Hoskins and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney combined. 

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

IF YOU GO

What: "Head Over Heels"

When: Sundays (3 p.m.), Tuesdays (7 p.m.), Wednesdays (2 and 8 p.m.), Thursdays (7 p.m.), Fridays (8 p.m.) and Saturdays (2 and 8 p.m.)

Where: Hudson Theatre, 141 West 44th Street, New York

Cost: $49-$290

Tickets and information: headoverheelsthemusical.com